Tainted Love: The Impact of Prison on Mothering Identity Explored via Mothers’ Post Prison Reflections
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Abstract
Mothers enter prison already disadvantaged, judged, excluded and most often in pain. Prison magnifies challenges to mothering and mothering identity. This paper reflects on the described experiences of previously incarcerated mothers. The paper focuses particularly on the emotional aspects of the mother’s experience, how being an imprisoned mother challenges her mothering identity and the mothering role; both during incarceration and long after release. The paper draws on the authors ongoing doctoral research, the purpose of which is to ‘understand more about the impact of prison on mothers who experience custody’, as well as the author’s previous research in this important area.2 The data is drawn from indepth interviews which took place with 21 released mothers between January 2016 and October 2016. All participants volunteered to take part and gave appropriate informed consent. The mothers had been out of prison for periods ranging from one to 26 years since their last sentence and were aged between 19 and 66.